On July 8th, Around 30,000 California Inmates Went On a Hunger Strike

August 06, 2013
By
Taylor & Taylor Attorneys

Share

At Taylor & Taylor, not only are we dedicated to our clients' rights,
we are strong advocates on behalf of the rights of inmates in America's
prisons. While people may make the wrong decisions or be in the wrong
place at the wrong time, we still believe that there is a human element
about prisoners that should never be ignored or forgotten, even when they
are ultimately sent to prison and punished for their mistakes.

On July 16, 2013, The
New York Times published an article that caught our attention, it was entitled, "When
Prisoners Protest." The article was written by Wilbert Rideau, who
served nearly 44 years for manslaughter, mostly in the Louisiana State
Penitentiary. Rideau is a journalist and author of the memoir "In
the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance."

The
Times article written by former inmate Rideau began by pointing out how there
aren't many protests in prison. Rideau said that in a world where
authorities exercise absolute power and demand obedience, prisoners are
almost always going to lose and they know it.

Rideau said that the typical inmate does not want to get in trouble because
he has little to gain and too much to lose such as his job, his visits,
recreation time, phone privileges and his right to purchase tuna, ramen
and stale bread at inflated prices as the commissary. He said that even
the bystander to the most peaceful protest can be punished and are only
limited by the imagination of their authorities.

Rideau, speaking from personal experience said that sometimes conditions
get so bad that prisoners feel they are compelled to protest with work
stoppages, prison riots or hunger strikes. Rideau pointed out how on July
8, 2013, some 30,000 inmates in the custody of the California Department
of Corrections went on a hunger strike in order to demand improvements
in prison conditions. He said their biggest complaint was the runaway
use of solitary confinement, in which thousands of prisoners are consigned
to this cruelty indefinitely and sometimes for decades at a time.

As of August 6, 2013, the California prison hunger strike reached its 25th
day; as of Monday there were over 550 hunger strikers protesting against
long-term solitary confinement. The hunger strike and work stoppage began
on July 8th with the participation of around 30,000 prisoners across the
state of California; this is the third time that California prisoners
have launched a hunger strike since June of 2011 when strikers protested
for the same set of demands as the current strike.

Rideau said he knows something about solitary confinement because he's
been there. He said that he spent a total of 12 years in various solitary
confinement cells. He told readers that isolating a human being for years
in a barren cell the size of a bathroom is the cruelest thing that can
be done to a human being. Deprived of all human contact, you lose feeling
connected to the world, you lose your ability to make small talk, even
with the guard who shoves your meal through the slot in the door. Rideau
said that you live entirely in your head because there is nothing else.
You talk to yourself, you answer yourself, you suffer from paranoia, depression
and sleeplessness. He said that to ward off madness you have to give yourself
something to do. In 1970 Rideau counted the 358 rivets that held his cell
together over and over.

The
Times article pointed out how there are prisoners such as Thomas Silverstein
in the federal prison system who have been in solitary for 30 years and
others such as Albert Woodfox who have been in solitary for 40 years.
These men are examples of abuse of power and at times a rallying point
for other inmates who know they too could one day face the same fate.

Riots, such as the California hunger strike that is still going on are
generally done by men who have been made desperate due to their lack of
options to address their grievances. If prison officials would actually
listen to these inmates, they would realize their demands are often reasonable.
For example, one of the five core demands of California hunger strikers
is to allow inmates the opportunity to engage in meaningful self-help
treatment, work, education, religious, and other activities associated
with having a sense of being a part of the community; to release inmates
to the general prison population who have been warehoused indefinitely
in solitary confinement for the last 10 to 40 years; and to provide inmates
in solitary adequate natural sunlight and quality healthcare.

If you're wondering why you should be concerned about the inhumane
conditions of prolonged solitary confinement, with all of the mental,
social and mental deterioration that solitary entails, then it's important
to remember that every year that men are released from these supermax
prisons around the nation, they are released directly from their tiny
cells to society to live and work among you and the ones you love. We
should all support the prisoners' request for rehabilitative opportunities
that will improve the mental health of those in solitary confinement.

The information on this website is for general information purposes only.
Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual
case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt
or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.